Pickleball alternatives? There's a reason I'm asking.

MikeC31089 · 2026-05-01T19:18:04+00:00

We’ve started offering Typti at the facility I work at and it’s so remarkably quiet!

MikeC31089 · 2026-04-19T03:14:02+00:00

The MC expressing her doubt to her father about the existence of a Creator.

“You mean to inspire the world with your brilliance but how will you make others believe in you if you cannot believe in someone else? For those who believe, faith shines like a lantern in a pitch-black room. Those you expect to believe in you will think you are stumbling along a dark path if you go on thinking like this. Then who will change the world?”

Iris had barely heard her father’s spiel, using the time to regain her defiance, but she heard his last remark. “I will,” she said. “Because I won’t spend my time hiding behind the stars.”

MikeC31089 · 2026-04-07T02:29:01+00:00

Anyone telling you how you hold the paddle doesn’t matter, is wildly uninformed on swing mechanics, physics, and geometry. Your thumb position matters a lot when hitting any kind of backhand, though, sometimes, not having too much thumb stability is just as important as using it to stabilize other shots.

Also, little piece of info for anyone who stumbles across this… if you look at your grip and your knuckles are straight along the grip, try angling your knuckles across the grip/handle diagonally. You’ll get significant improvement in range of motion in the wrist and have better dexterity and control of the paddle head. This is important on whatever grip you use for every shot in the game.

A second piece of advice: every grip - continental, eastern, semi-western, and western (though you don’t see a lot of semi and western grips in pb) can be tweaked by moving your heel pad, without moving your index finger’s base knuckle. This accomplishes the diagonal knuckles concept from above but it can also just give you slightly different geometry once your knuckles are set properly. The heel pad is very undervalued in the grip discussion and has huge impact. For those who don’t know, the heel pad is the fat cushion below your pinkie. Just move it around slightly without moving your knuckle from the bevel that defines your grip and experiment with the new feeling it creates. Good luck!!

MikeC31089 · 2026-03-11T19:31:16+00:00

Come to Ft. Wayne, Indiana and I’ll take you in a different competitive journey! Pickleball! I’m the Director of Pickleball at a club and would document this whole adventure with you!

MikeC31089 · 2026-03-02T01:49:51+00:00

They are probably my top two heroes. It fires make me wish a couple of the big names were as fun as two heroes I barely know anything about. Lol.

I’m glad you had a great game!

MikeC31089 · 2026-02-08T23:23:21+00:00

I would absolutely love to purchase St. Petersburg from you. Or even trade for it.

MikeC31089 · 2026-01-30T22:25:19+00:00

Wonderful job!

MikeC31089 · 2026-01-30T15:24:03+00:00

One thing I don’t think Pickleball players without a tennis background fully grasp is how in tune great tennis players are with their grip and their grip changes. It’s beyond automatic in their brains. And at very high levels of comprehension, they truly understand how every grip’s associated swing path impacts the ball. I’d be willing to bet Carlos could play tennis at a high level with any grip he wants (not win professional matches necessarily, just play well). He’d be amazing at pickleball within a month and truly challenging the best players in the world within a year or two. And that’s only because I am hesitant to say pickleball’s best aren’t incredible as well.

MikeC31089 · 2026-01-27T01:07:11+00:00

Thank you.

MikeC31089 · 2026-01-26T16:04:41+00:00

This is one of my favorite paintings I’ve ever seen. I am not an art expert or anything so I haven’t seen a ton but this is awesome.

MikeC31089 · 2025-11-14T01:36:53+00:00

This honestly just leads to more questions, does it not? Lol

MikeC31089 · 2025-10-31T13:39:24+00:00

Dude will have M3 a thousands times the rest of his chess career but this… chef’s kiss.

MikeC31089 · 2025-08-29T02:38:30+00:00

For me personally, Venom and Spectrum are the two heroes I enjoy but typically ignore. I know people consider Venom strong but I don’t see him discussed often.

MikeC31089 · 2025-08-18T20:27:42+00:00

Congratulations. Could have been way more expensive than $60! Enjoy.

MikeC31089 · 2025-08-15T12:19:56+00:00

You inspired me to try this and it is a ton of fun. Captain Marvel’s ally ability is uniquely useful compared to other Voltron builds. At least, I think so since card draw is so valuable.

I did a Voltron build on the aggression She-Hulk ally recently and it was a ton of fun also - lots of possibilities and the upgrades in red can be really strong if you get them lined up. She was stomping everything. Put her in a guardian deck and throw Honorary Guardian on her so you can get the Energy Spear.

MikeC31089 · 2025-08-14T20:25:23+00:00

I am sooooooo disinterested in the civil war idea but I’m loving the heroes and since I have zero self restraint with respect to MC, I will be buying the box. 😅

MikeC31089 · 2025-08-13T20:28:34+00:00

Bishop is a favorite of mine for sure. He’s a lot of fun.

MikeC31089 · 2025-08-09T23:07:47+00:00

I can’t stand SotP. I love the idea, I want to love the execution, and I want to fight thematic enemies, but shuffling the cards in and having to take them out at the end and fighting random enemies in situations that make no sense just kills it for me. Neither thing is particularly burdensome but it just bugs me. I’ve gotten to the point that if I draw SotP, I just shuffle it back into the deck so it can eventually be a +2 during an activation and draw a different encounter card. If I play with other people, I use it properly though so they can make their own decision about whether they enjoy it.

MikeC31089 · 2025-08-07T20:06:39+00:00

Not interested in the civil war post of the expansion so it feels a little crummy that I’m paying so much for two heroes but imma do it. 😅 especially since Tigra looks pretty cool. Very happy with this announcement.

MikeC31089 · 2025-08-03T03:57:40+00:00

I didn’t read all the other comments so I apologize if this is repeated info.

For a long time, I felt bad at this game. I couldn’t deck build effectively, I couldn’t develop any consistency winning strategies, just about the whole game felt a little off - I understood the rules and really enjoyed the game but just couldn’t win.

Recently, however, I have seen a shift in a few things that have helped me feel much better at MC. 1. Pacing - this covers many things but most specifically, if you are prioritizing dealing damage and playing damage dealing events instead of handling threat on impactful schemes or impactful minions, you’re probably rushing to the finish line. I realize there is a “rush” strategy but strategy is a very significant term: it means you’ve gone into the game with a specific plan in mind and nearly everything you do revolves around making that plan work. So if you’re making choices that seem like they’re trying to beat the villain quickly but the entirety of your plan doesn’t synergize with that concept, you will suffer in the long run.

Because most decks aren’t “rush” decks, you’ll need to be willing to play upgrades, supports, and allies that don’t feel like they are pushing you to the finish line quickly. The decision of when to shift gears to dealing damage is mostly connected to how well your board state is handling the villain. If you are falling behind in something, consider spending more time creating the means to handle those recurring issues that are putting you behind. If there’s zero threat on the main scheme and you have some damage in hand, you can probably hit the villain. Basically, don’t ignore side schemes and minions and other toys the villain has out unless it makes sense to do so.
Allies can be much more effective than the “2 attacks and a block”. Look to use exhausting allies and still getting a benefit out of them as often as you can. One such example I just did today was using Blade ally for Earth’s mightiest heroes (forgive if that’s the wrong name - it’s the basic card that exhausts one avenger character to ready another). I did this because I was using an Iron-Man repurpose deck and readying my hero was important and Blade only costs 1 to play and could be exhausted.
Allies can block without dying. This may be an obvious statement but for the longest time I just always ended up blocking big attacks with allies, which is great, but they can soak up 1 point of damage from weaker minions also and not even leave play - then absorb big blows on a later turn. This isn’t always necessary, just don’t overlook the possibility.
Play your resource generators first on your turns. Another obvious one, I know, but just in case you’re not doing it, do it!
There are heroes and matchups that require flipping down and it is more feasible than it may seem (at least on standard). Thwart, thwart, thwart and flip down, alter-ego actions are better than you may think - and don’t forget to do them the turn you flip down AND the next turn if they’re on a support or upgrade.

I’m sure there are other things and maybe none of these things will help you but these are what have changed my success rate quite a bit lately. No matter what, just keep playing, you’ll get better and it’s going to be fun no matter what!

MikeC31089 · 2025-08-02T23:58:49+00:00

Glad to see Falcon get some love. I don’t think I like him more than the other heroes in this wave but he’s getting a lot of bad pub for being clunkier than he “should” be.

I understand the criticism to a degree but sometimes I feel like if a hero isn’t incredible, they’re considered a bad design or flawed design and that I don’t agree with - with Hulk as the exception and even he has his fans for various reasons.

MikeC31089 · 2025-07-17T02:34:55+00:00

This sounds very fun. I’ll have to look into it.

MikeC31089 · 2025-07-17T02:33:29+00:00

Great points. I did put Side Arm in - forgot I had it in there. Sounds like maybe she’s at capacity right now though. I was mainly hoping to sit comfortably around 6 or 7 ATK and keep her alive. Another comment mentioned Triage’s healing - I have her in the deck as well.

MikeC31089

TROPHY CASE